2011 a practice run for what’s to come

At the beginning of 2011 Saint Michael’s had a clear objective to provide more services to more people.  For the third sector, the quality of services and the quantity of people you reach with those services are the bottom lines.  The economic climate that we needed to achieve these aims within was harsh and made the journey challenging.  Nevertheless we did it, we achieved our objective, but we had to accomplish it with less than we were planning.  In other words we needed to think differently, adapt to opportunities, challenge convention and think laterally – all things that all sectors are facing.

Looking ahead to 2012 and the economic landscape renders 2011 nothing more than a practice run for what is to come.  We would still like to deliver more services to more people but it is clear that just maintaining our services at current levels will be a significant achievement.

Although facing the same recession as the private sector, our reason for being is to provide end of life care services free of charge to individuals in our communities.  That in effect means that our reason for being is to spend money rather than to make money.  That leads to challenges on several fronts.  Raising the money to spend is becoming more difficult for two reasons – firstly there is less money out there to raise and secondly many smaller charities, previously 100percent government funded, have reacted to funding cuts by entering an already crowded fundraising marketplace.

In 2012 we will hold firm and perhaps even expand our investment in fundraising, accepting that we are now working within an  increasingly competitive and volatile market.

The other huge challenge is that the demand for our services is increasing with pace. As public sector cuts take hold frontline staffing levels and healthcare resources are being squeezed and more patients and clients than ever before are now being referred to our range of services. This adds to already established pressures brought out by the ageing UK population.

So, how will we deal with it?  It becomes much more difficult to keep reaching into the ‘more with less’ strategy.  One of our core values is quality, and the only way to balance this and the ‘more with less’ environment is by doing  things differently. That is why we always have and always will continue to operate within a culture where change is embraced, where we continually and regularly review the effectiveness of our operations, our fundraising, our structure and our people.

This continual review process enables us to make sure the care and support we give each patient is as good as it can be, that we spend every donor’s contribution as wisely and effectively as possible and that we maximise every collaborative working opportunity out there.

In 2012 we will hold firm and perhaps even expand our investment in fundraising, accepting that we are now working within an increasingly competitive and volatile market. We are ready to react to opportunity and circumstance. We will work hard and continue to evolve because, even if we have less, the value of our services will always remain the same.

( Originally published in the Harrogate Advertiser: January 27 2011)